Consistency is important, not just in marketing but in general. Being consistent means you know who you are and what are your core principles.
The same applies to your brand. Whenever you communicate with your clients, customers, or audience, there are specific things you need to pay attention to.
You need to have a clear and precise message when developing your brand strategy. Otherwise, your audience is just going to see (or hear) noise.
The most important thing about communication is understanding. If they are not able to make sense of what you’re saying or have problems with recognizing your brand, chances are your customers will not buy a product or service from you.
In this business, it is crucial to be a good storyteller. Telling a story about your brand is a 101 of brand management. The brand is like an individual, with backstories, ideas, and obstacles.
Think about the most successful brands and how they tell their stories. All those stories share one thing - consistency.
Being consistent is one of the most powerful ways of achieving long-term goals in marketing.
In this article, I am going to show you how you can make your brand stand out and beat the competition. Keep reading to find out about the cutting-edge tips for improving your brand visibility.
What Is Brand Consistency?
Brand consistency is a network and a basis of how you communicate as a brand. Not only that, it is the idea that your potential clients have about you as a company, your products, and your services.
Your customers are content consumers first. They want to know who you are, what your language is, your culture, how you communicate, what is important to you, etc. They want to know more about you before they can even think about doing business with you.
If you have clear messages that are not contradicting each other, chances are you are a stand-up company. Nobody wants to do business with a confusing brand that has an identity crisis (if you don’t know who you are, how the hell will you know what I need?)
1. Be Consistent on All Channels
The first rule of digital marketing is to have the main channel (I am not sure if this is really “the first rule” but it sounds cool, just like that fight club scene). It is wise to use different social media, a powerful website, and great email and SMS marketing lists but make sure they are all coordinated.
How do you do that? Let's say you have defined your audience, identified their needs, what kind of problems they have and why your solution is the best on the market.
Let's say you have also created a marketing strategy, meaning - what kind of messages you are going to send them on a regular basis. You need to make sure that every message is true when it comes to representing the essence of your brand.
If your audience reads a post that is not compatible with your brand identity or creates an idea that alienates them from your products, you have a consistency problem.
Don’t be fooled by the inherent differences in available marketing channels. Of course, there are significant differences between writing an email and creating a promotional video about your product.
However, the message should be crystal clear in both cases and your brand is easily recognizable. Make sure to get acquainted with Cross Channel Marketing before creating a marketing strategy. There are various growth resources that can be used to streamline your communications across different channels and capture leads.
2. Use a Marketing Calendar
If the content is king, then planning is the kingdom (I am not sure if this is the right analogy but then again, I am not very good with analogies). Have no doubt, you need to make a schedule for all the messages you’re sending to your potential customers.
Communicating a single message can be very challenging, especially if you work with a bigger team. The designer, marketing manager, project manager, etc all have to be in sync to achieve that unity that you want in your campaign.
Having a marketing calendar can help you plan ahead and coordinate between different departments. You will be able to see what others are doing, where the project is in terms of communication, and what should be your next step.
Having a calendar is also useful for future analysis. Seeing the dates with exact actions can help you improve your marketing efforts and achieve better consistency in the future.
3. Bring More Value
Those who offer more value are those who will stay longer in the game. Your customers are all about getting more value for their money. It's not enough to tell a compelling story and your customers will stay loyal.
A big part of having a consistent brand is having products that are really powerful as your ads say. There is nothing worse than selling something to a customer you know is not what they expect based on the amount of money they gave you.
Of course, powerful marketing can attract many customers but if you are selling garbage no marketing plan can help you.
Being credible is also important. For example, If you have a website with blogs, articles, etc, make sure your contributors are well represented. Crediting content creators is often overlooked but it shows that you care about your contributors.
4. Create a Powerful Logo
This is a double-edged sword. It is common sense that brands need an amazing logo and yet, many companies are not serious when it comes to thinking, developing, and creating their logo.
Your logo is the essence of your brand. It is a visual representation of your culture, ideas, and practices. A successful logo needs to be simple and powerful enough to create all the right associations.
When somebody looks at your logo they need to have a clear idea about the following:
- What is your industry
- What kind of products or services are you selling
- What is your targeted audience
There are many dimensions concerning a company's logo. First, there are colors. You need to be very careful about choosing the right colors. Two or three is enough.
The shape is what communicates what you do and how you do it. Think about the best examples. These symbols are simple. They are carefully designed to send a powerful message in a blink of an eye. Explore different logo ideas to get inspired.
5. Understand Your Audience
Marketing is all about people. The right message is communicated to the right person. That's it. Your job is to know the person that you’re speaking to.
When I say know the person I mean you need to really get to know them. Create that person. What is her name, her age, what kind of places she wants to visit online, and what is her favorite music?
Make sure to consider what communication platform they prefer as well. Sure, email is a great platform for many, but sometimes people need more to really know, like, and trust you. This could mean creating a Youtube channel or using webinar software to host monthly or quarterly webinars. Try all of these communication methods to see what resonates the best and leads to the highest conversions for your business.
When you know your audience, you will know how to talk to them. Your messages will be personalized. Imagine someone starts talking to you on the streets without a single clue about your wants and needs. On top of that, they are offering a product that you hate.
Now, imagine someone telling you things you want to hear, using your language, and offering you a product that you were planning to buy for weeks. That’s marketing.
Conclusion
Life is short, just like this article. If you’re a person who likes to jump to a conclusion without reading, then here is a short summary:
Plan things and use different channels wisely. Always know who your audience is and how to communicate your messages. A great logo can be a tricky thing to make but it can do wonders for your marketing.
